dgoodell
Plastic
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2018
- Location
- Cleveland, Ohio
I have a thin wall (0.004", 100 micron) 316 SS component that we are finding very difficult to get manufactured. Here's a link to the drawing.
The component is part of a prototype 1-watt stirling engine. If the design is successful, this could lead to a project to build these engines for space use to power sensor packages on various planets and moons in the solar system.
We didn't have much luck getting quotes to get this part made as-is so we decided to manage the manufacture of this part ourselves. It was easy enough to get the outer features turned and a blind a hole drilled into the middle. The trouble came we tried to plunge EDM the ID. Whenever we did the thin wall section the part would just disintegrate. It didn't seem that we could EDM something that thin.
Now we're thinking that we should encase the part in a fusible alloy (like Cerrotru) to make the wall thicker prior to EDM.
Alternatively, we could finish the ID first, then fill the part with Cerrotru, then finish the o.d. features to get the required wall thickness.
Does anyone have any idea about what approach to manufacturing this part might make the most sense?
The component is part of a prototype 1-watt stirling engine. If the design is successful, this could lead to a project to build these engines for space use to power sensor packages on various planets and moons in the solar system.
We didn't have much luck getting quotes to get this part made as-is so we decided to manage the manufacture of this part ourselves. It was easy enough to get the outer features turned and a blind a hole drilled into the middle. The trouble came we tried to plunge EDM the ID. Whenever we did the thin wall section the part would just disintegrate. It didn't seem that we could EDM something that thin.
Now we're thinking that we should encase the part in a fusible alloy (like Cerrotru) to make the wall thicker prior to EDM.
Alternatively, we could finish the ID first, then fill the part with Cerrotru, then finish the o.d. features to get the required wall thickness.
Does anyone have any idea about what approach to manufacturing this part might make the most sense?